Social Relatedness and Physical Health Are More Strongly Related in Older Than Younger Adults: Findings from the Korean Adult Longitudinal Study

Older people are not always happier than younger people: The moderating role of personality

The present research explored whether the well-established U-shaped relationship between age and happiness varied with personality. Individuals ranging from 15 to 75 years of age (N = 10,456, 84.9% female) completed online surveys of subjective well-being (i.e. life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect) and the Big Five personality traits (International Personality Item Pool [IPIP]). The results of hierarchical multiple regression using the PROCESS macro not only supported the prediction of a U-shaped relationship between age and well-being but also revealed that the quadratic relationship is moderated by agreeableness and neuroticism. Specifically, well-being did not bounce back in later adulthood on the well-being curve across different age groups with low agreeableness and high neuroticism. Moreover, positive affect did not increase and even decreased in later adulthood among those with low agreeableness. This study discusses the potential mechanisms.

Social Relationships, Wealth, and Cardiometabolic Risk: Evidence from a National Longitudinal Study of U.S. Older Adults

Objectives: To investigate multiple dimensions of social relationships related to biomarkers of cardiometabolic health and how their associations vary by wealth in older adults. Methods: Growth curve models were used to investigate the longitudinal associations between measures of both positive and negative social relationships and cardiometabolic risk (CMR) over a 10-year period from 2006 to 2016 and the moderation of this association by wealth in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Results: Older adults with better social relationships had lower CMR on average. The protective effects of positive social relationships, however, waned at older ages, particularly for low-wealth individuals. Discussion: Our results suggest that good social relationships promote healthy aging by buffering against harmful cardiometabolic consequences of psychosocial stress, particularly among relatively wealthy individuals. Efforts to improve old age health would be more effective when focusing simultaneously on fostering social connections and boosting financial resources.

Survivors' health competence mediates the association between wearable activity tracker use and self-rated health: HINTS analysis

PURPOSE

Physical activity (PA) plays an important role in achieving positive self-rated health (SRH) among cancer survivors. Wearable activity trackers (WATs) can be effective for self-monitoring and tracking PA. Studies have shown that survivors who use WATs are more likely to engage in more PA. However, few studies have examined the direct and indirect associations between WAT use, PA, and SRH mediated by constructs derived from self-determination theory, perceived health competence, and perceived social relatedness for health.

METHODS

Data on survivors were analyzed from National Cancer Institute's Health Information National Trend Survey (HINTS) Cycle 1-3 (n = 1,421). Path analysis was used to test the total, direct, and indirect associations.

RESULTS

Previous WAT use was directly associated with PA level (standardized beta (SB): 0.07, p = 0.005) and indirectly associated with SRH (SB: 0.04, p = 0.005), mediated by perceived health competence and PA. Perceived health competence was directly associated with SRH (SB: 0.51, p < .0001) and PA (SB: 0.20, p < .0001), and perceived social relatedness for health was not significantly associated with PA (SB: 0.005, p = 0.8) or SRH (SB: 0.02, p = 0.31).

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, these results indicate that perceived health competence significantly mediated the associations between WAT use and SRH; however, WAT use was only directly associated with PA and was not mediated.

IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS

These findings support the notion that WATs may play a role in addressing SRH among cancer survivors through fostering perceived health competence by providing real-time feedback, goal setting, and opportunities for self-monitoring.

Loneliness and Health: The Moderating Effect of Cross-Cultural Individualism/Collectivism

Objectives: The adverse health effects of loneliness are well documented, but less is known about cultural moderators of this relationship. Contributing to the literature, we examined whether cross-cultural differences in individualism moderate the effect of loneliness on health. Methods: We used population-based longitudinal data of 14 countries (N = 40,797), as provided by the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe data. Multilevel regression analyses were employed. Moderating effects were analyzed for multiple health outcomes: activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, grip strength, life satisfaction, depression, memory performance, verbal fluency, and numeracy. Results: Cultural individualism significantly moderated the effect of loneliness on health regarding most health outcomes. In general, the effect of loneliness on health became stronger in less individualistic/more collectivistic countries. Discussion: Cultural individualism proved to be one important moderator of the loneliness-health relationship. As previous studies mostly used samples from highly individualistic countries, the current literature might severely underestimate the global public health burden of loneliness.